Halfway there!

I feel awfully proud of myself for making it to this point! Yes, there have been a few days where I haven’t drawn, but it has definitely kept me mindful of drawing and art. A thing I must complete every day as a step toward becoming a better artist. And I’m fifty steps in.

The quote I included on my drawing today was from The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway: 

“‘Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman,’ he thought. ‘But that was the thing I was born for.'”

Now, I feel obligated at this point to come clean and say that I am taking this quote out of context; it’s been a while since I read the book and I’m not sure where my copy is at to reference. I just looked up quotes about the sea or something like that and I was like, “Oooh Hemingway! Yes please!” However, I feel that it is very applicable as a stand alone quote (and I apologize if I assume anything wrong.)

“The thing I was born for.”

I feel like that is what we each strive to discover all of our life, and then perhaps once we achieve it, we wonder if we made the right choice, if we should have done something else with our precious time on earth. But in reality? What else would you do besides that which you… do. That which you were born to do. Of course I think of being an artist first, which sounds sorta…romantic… I suppose, even if true, but I don’t think that is the only thing. I was born for so much more than simply a career choice. I was born to create beautiful things; to instigate laughter and joy; to not so much leave my “mark on the world,” but to even in the smallest way enrich the world; and most importantly perhaps, to be kind, to love others, to exhibit grace.

Doing this drawing challenge is a way to hone my creativity, and help me find the thing I was born for. However it’s not something to search for desperately, it is something you are doing already, for we are each of us innately living our purpose. Don’t focus so much on the future, on what you must do, must accomplish, must make. Focus on the person you currently are and be at peace with that person for you are needed. You were born and thus you are necessary.

What is the the thing you believe you were born for?